Trump just played the birther card against Cruz; watch his killer response

Republican front-runner Donald Trump reintroduced the issue of Cruz’s presidential eligibility Tuesday during an interview with the Washington Post.

Cruz, in his response, laughed off the comments made by Trump.

I am amused that Donald Trump is once again reminding voters that Ted Cruz was born in Canada.

Cruz responded to Trump on Twitter with a link to the iconic TV character Fonzie jumping over a shark in the TV show “Happy Days”.

Cruz is older than 35 (check!), has resided in the USA for more than 14 years (another check!), and the only remaining question is whether he qualifies as a natural-born citizen (mostly-check).

Trump has said he’d build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and eject more than 11 million undocumented immigrants from the United States. Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, in 1970 while his parents were working in the oil industry. “Nothing against Canada”, Cruz said, “but I’m an American by birth and as a US senator, I believe I should be only an American”. Ted Cruz renounced Canadian citizenship about two years before- in 2014.

The two Republicans’ attempts to damage Cruz reflect their campaigns’ understanding that their best bet at a long-shot run depends on a strong finish in Iowa – and that Cruz’s strength in Iowa makes that unlikely.

Trump said in a Wednesday interview on Fox News he wants Cruz to “get some kind of an order” from a court to block any potential lawsuit challenging his citizenship.

Trump has actually been questioning the significance of Cruz’s Canadian birth for some time. Indeed, because his father had also been resident in the United States, Senator Cruz would have been a “natural born Citizen” even under the Naturalization Act of 1790.

Previous foreign-born Americans – notably Republicans John McCain and George Romney – have run for president with some mention, but no serious challenges, of their eligibility.

Legal scholars have agreed that Cruz and the other candidates before him would indeed be eligible for the White House.

He has carefully avoided clashing with Trump on the campaign trail – operating under a philosophy that he could eventually inherit Trump’s supporters if the real estate mogul fades.

Candidates and super PACs have been releasing a stream of ads since the new year as the first votes in the primary are just weeks away.

However, in this scenario, a decision from a federal court, likely the Supreme Court, would not take a “long time” as Trump suggests, since the high court would likely take jurisdiction over the case. Cruz, who has called his immigration proposals the most aggressive put forward by a GOP candidate, refused to directly address Trump’s copycat claim Monday evening while speaking with reporters in Winterset.

I would prefer to live in a world without government, or at least the sort of government we have now, but who has the excess psychic bandwidth to give a shit about whether somebody was born here or somewhere else when it comes to presidential elections? Those are highlights of the latest News-5/Strategy Poll.